John Williams in the concert hall

Synopsis

The American composer John Williams has written dozens of classic film scores, providing the music you hear when ET calls home, or Indiana Jones runs for his life, inches ahead of that huge boulder that threatens to burst out of the movie screen and land right in our laps. Writing for the movies means working fast AND working hard. The music has to meet firm production deadlines and fit specific cinematic requests.

Despite the frantic pace, Williams somehow managed to find the time to lead the Boston Pops orchestra for many years, and even compose a substantial body of work for the concert hall as well as for the silver screen.

On today’s date in 1981, Leonard Slatkin conducted the St. Louis Symphony in the premiere performance of this Violin Concerto by John Williams. Williams began work on this concerto in 1974, and completed it in 1976, dedicating it to the memory of his late wife, an actress and singer.

Considering the quantity and quality of modern violin concertos by master composers like Walton, Bartok and Stravinsky, says Williams, it was a bit daunting to tackle one himself, but he couldn’t resist the challenge... and then he went on to write concertos for flute, tuba, clarinet, bassoon, cello, trumpet and horn!

When does this guy find time to sleep?

Music Played in Today's Program

John Williams (b. 1932) Violin Concerto Gil Shaham, violin; Boston Symphony; John Williams, cond. DG 471 326

On This Day

Births

• 1715 - Austrian composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil, in Vienna;

• 1782 - French composer Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, in Caen;

• 1852 - British composer Frederic Hymen Cowen, in Kingston, Jamaica;

• 1862 - English composer Fritz (Frederick) Delius, in Bradford, Yorkshire;

• 1876 - English composer Havergal Brian, in Dresden, Staffordshire;

• 1924 - Italian composer Luigi Nono, in Venice;

Deaths

• 1946 - British composer Sydney Jones, age 84, in London, age 84;

• 1962 - Austrian composer and violinist Fritz Kreisler, age 86, in New York City;

Premieres

• 1728 - Gay & Pepusch: ballad-opera, “The Beggar’s Opera,” at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London; This work, mounted by the London impresario John Rich, proved so popular that it was staged 62 times that season; As contemporary wags put it, the wildly successful work “made Gay Rich and Rich Gay&rdquo(Gregorian date: Feb. 9);

• 1781 - Mozart: opera, "Idomeneo" in Munich at the Hoftheater;

• 1826 - Schubert: String Quartet in D minor, "Death and the Maiden," as a unrehearsed reading at the Vienna home of Karl and Franz Hacker, two amateur musicians; Schubert, who usually played viola on such occasions, could not perform since he was busy copying out the parts and making last-minute corrections;

• 1882 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera "The Snow Maiden," in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Feb. 10);

• 1892 - Chadwick: “A Pastoral Prelude,” by the Boston Symphony. Arthur Nikisch conducting;

• 1916 - Prokofiev: "Scythian" Suite ("Ala and Lolly"), Op. 20, at the Mariinsky Theater in Petrograd, with the composer conducting (Julian date: Jan. 16);

• 1932 - Gershwin: "Second Rhapsody" for piano and orchestra, in Boston, with the Boston Symphony conducted by Serge Koussevitzky and the composer as soloist;

• 1936 - Constant Lambert: "Summer's Last Will and Testament" for chorus and orchestra, in London;

• 1981 - John Williams: first version of Violin Concerto (dedicated to the composer's late wife, actress and singer Barbara Ruick Williams), by Mark Peskanov and the St. Louis Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin; Williams subsequently revised this work in 1998; This premiere date is listed (incorrectly) as Jan. 19 in the DG recording featuring Gil Shaham;